Interstitial Cystitis & Chronic UTI Doctors
Are you being sent home in pain and frustration by your doctors from a mystery Cystitis? Not sure if yours is pelvic floor dysfunction, IC, UTI, or some rare disease? The practitioners below can help. They treat international patients with chronic UTI, bladder inflammation, urinary frequency and interstitial cystitis symptoms. They offer different urine testing beyond the standard urine tests. I have personally contacted everyone on this list. You will have to figure out which practitioner fits your style and can help with your specific cause. I also leave my 2 cents (my own thoughts) on each doctor as well.
Dr. Stewart Bundrick, Urologist
Urologist, who also treats Chronic Bacterial Cystitis, Louisiana, US
Phone: (318) 841-4004
My 2 cents: I feel like I will be healed fully by him. I discovered him in late Fall 2019 when my other IC and embedded UTI colleagues were flying out to see him. When one of them recovered, I was very excited and continued to see what others would say. Then one of my friends, whom I have met and known for over a year (she was a Ruth Kriz patient with me), said her bladder had felt the best it's ever been once she went on Dr. Bundrick's protocol. I went to see him and I feel like I can beat this IC/embedded UTI disease now. His protocol is very similar to Professor Malone-Lee in long-term antibiotics to resolve a chronic embedded UTI, he and the Prof met in person too.
Dr. Stewart Bundrick, Urologist
Urologist, who also treats Chronic Bacterial Cystitis, Louisiana, US
Phone: (318) 841-4004
My 2 cents: I feel like I will be healed fully by him. I discovered him in late Fall 2019 when my other IC and embedded UTI colleagues were flying out to see him. When one of them recovered, I was very excited and continued to see what others would say. Then one of my friends, whom I have met and known for over a year (she was a Ruth Kriz patient with me), said her bladder had felt the best it's ever been once she went on Dr. Bundrick's protocol. I went to see him and I feel like I can beat this IC/embedded UTI disease now. His protocol is very similar to Professor Malone-Lee in long-term antibiotics to resolve a chronic embedded UTI, he and the Prof met in person too.
Ruth Kriz, MSN, APRN
IC & Chronic UTI Nurse Practitioner, United States
Phone: 1-202-714-2415
My 2 cents: I am so glad I found her. After I came back from Dr. Hsieh's US visit, I found it hard to keep in touch with him because his hospital policy doesn't allow him to webcam with Canadians like me. But I found Ruth through a few other peoples' recommendations. She had a huge waiting list and was very hard to get in. She had a phone consultation with my naturopath (at my request) and I became Ruth's patient at the end of Sept 2018. I was under her care until she retired in late 2019. Mentally, she kept me alive. She was so much better than any therapist or counselor that was recommended to me. I was suicidal (attempted 2 suicides) before I met Ruth. I'm going to be super honest and say that counselors and therapists are NOT helpful if they never had IC or embedded UTIs. Since Ruth Kriz herself had Interstital Cystitis, she was the best person, for me personally, to talk to about my situation.
Dr. Michael Hsieh
Urologist, United States
GW Medical Faculty Associates
Washington DC, United States
Phone: +1 202-741-3100
Must see in-person if you are a non-US resident, available Fridays only. He can provide telemedicine consults via Zoom app for you if you live in the US and hold insurance which allows telemedicine consults. I have flown to see him in July 2018. He does standard urine lab tests and MicroGen DX generation sequencing urine tests.
My 2 cents: If you are not close to DC Washington, it might be difficult, because as a Canadian, when I saw him in-person, I had to fly to the US. There were procedures that we could do, but I couldn't because it was too costly for me since I am not insured after American healthcare as a foreigner. But we were able to do a MicroGenDX urine test and getting his documents as my record was able to get 3 doctors back in my hometown (Vancouver BC) to believe me, because Dr. Hsieh is a legitimate urologist authority. That was enough to get 3 doctors to realize I do not have IC. Basically, nobody will really take my word. But with the real stamped reports from Dr. Hsieh with me, it was now files from a real urologist to my doctors and specialists. The difficult part is that I cannot do webcam or phone consulting as a Canadian with him, due to his hospital policy, so communication is difficult and sparse. Personally, I feel seeing Dr. Hsieh is much easier if you are in his city / near his city to see him. He is very gentle, knowledgeable and I know a patient who is under him and doing positively under him. If you are international, I don't recommend it because of his hospital's restrictions on that.
Dr. Roscoe Nelson, MD
Urologist, United States
PeeDoc.com
Glendale, Arizona, United States
Phone: +1 602-942-5600
Email: drnelson@peedoc.com
He can provide Facetime consults with international patients which makes this very convenient! I have spoken with him a few times over email. There is a Youtube interview about him by The Balancing Act on chronic and re-curring UTIs. He does standard urine lab tests and MicroGen DX generation sequencing urine tests. My 2 cents:
Professor James Malone-Lee or his son Matthew Malone-Lee
Urologist, United Kingdom 10 Harley Street London, United Kingdom
Phone: 07568 403211
Email: profjmlclinic@tenharleystreet.com
Must see in-person first, then can do email and phone follow-ups. There's also a private Facebook group for his new and old patients who discuss his treatments. People fly to him from all over the world. He does not do DNA sequencing urine tests, but he looks at your urine with a microscope and can detect your infection through a special way (I'll post his method in the future, I have an email of how he does it but I will ask for his permission first). He treats with long-term oral antibiotics and Hipprex.
NEXT GENERATION SEQUENCING
There are several different ones on the market that you've probably heard of, but the top 2 I recommend is MicrogenDX and Pathnostics:
MicroGenDX
Accurately identify 100% of the microbes within a sample with 99.9% accuracy. The urology kit costed me $200ish USD + $87 CDN shipping fee. I do their urine tests once a month to keep track of my progress and then Fed-ex to them each time.
Phone: 1-855-208-0019
To read more about Aperiomics and MicroGenDX and how it works, I wrote a post about them here >>
If you are in Canada and looking for Canadian doctors to sign your kit, read this post.
Pathnostics - I will be writing a detailed post about this sometime in the future. I am so swamped that I Haven't had time to blog lately, but I highly recommend doing a Pathnostics and Microgen together if you can! There is a big reason why I did both but when I have time I'll blog it. I am just way too busy now to deal with my blog. I wish I could afford to hire a team who could write down all my journeys and experiences, and publish it for me.
Aperiomics is another urine kit test, but I'm partial to recommending it, because a) it's very expensive at $750-950 USD per kit, and b) they misdiagnosed my urine problem. So I've only been testing with Microgen and Pathnostics ever since and have had success with the last two.
NATUROPATH
Dr. Carley Akehurst, ND
Mint Integrative Health
Unit 485 -1541 W Broadway, Vancouver, BC, Canada
Phone: +1 604-251-3456Email: info@mintintegrative.com
Can see in-person (and I think maybe can do over-the-phone consulting if you are not local to Vancouver BC). She has a deep interest in chronic UTI. She can sign requisition forms for MicrogenDX, Pathnostics, and Aperiomics urine kits. She signed my Aperiomics and MicroGenDX kits because my GP refused to. She was recommended to me by Aperiomics when I asked them who in BC is open to their technology. I am currently her patient. She also has consulted with Ruth Kriz, and will be in touch with Dr. Stewart Bundrick. She can do both antibiotics and holistic approaches. She consults with my US doctors back and forth, which is really great so I get the care I need in both US and Canada.
PELVIC PHYSIOTHERAPY
UTIs, IC, pelvic pain, bladder trauma, and pelvic floor dysfunction can sometimes go hand-in-hand or trigger each other.
Soul Physiotherapy
Richmond BC Canada
Phone: +1 604-303-0369
I am her patient. You have to come in person for hands-on treatments. I feel a huge difference in pain relief when I see her. I felt my internal pelvic muscle go from rock hard and extremely painful to getting softer with her internal pelvic massages and outer massages. It was pretty painful in the beginning!
TRADITIONAL CHINESE MEDICINE
Thousands of years of ancient Chinese knowledge can find many things that Western medicine may not yet know about. Also, many of today's Western medicine and pills are actually derived from TCM knowledge.
Dr. Tuen Fan Chan, MD (from China, in Canada)
G & R Ginseng Trading, 111 - 4600 No. 3 Road, Richmond BC Canada
Phone: +1 (604) 285-8895 (they only speak Chinese. If you need an English translator, ask for Jenny or Kenneth, but their English isn't fluent. I *HIGHLY* advise you bring a fluent Chinese speaking friend with you. Sorry, I will not be that translator for you, you must find or hire your own)
I was his patient. You have to come in person for treatments. If you don't speak Chinese, bring a translator who can help you, or use Google Translate like I did. If you are looking for a TCM doctor, make sure (s)he is certified from a reputable TCM school and is on their registry. In BC, we have a College of Traditional Chinese Medicine Practitioners website. He was the one who cured me out of a wheelchair, when doctors and specialists in my town could not figure out what was wrong with me. He modified my recipes many times. When I told him my MicroGen discovery of my multi-antibiotic resistant e-coli, he modified the recipe to target my e-coli superbugs, and that was when I started to feel a significant difference.
Dr. Andrew Flower, United Kingdom
A TCM practitioner I have heard of from many IC and UTI patients for chronic UTI healing is Andrew Flower at the White Crane Clinic
13 St George's Mews, Primrose Hill, London, UK
Email: enquire@whitecraneclinic.co.uk
Phone: 0207 586 6639
He can also give you a Chinese medicine herbal recipe for chronic or recurring UTI, but you must make sure that you bring the recipe to your local Chinese Medicine doctor to interpret and modify for you. I would have gladly seen him if I lived in the UK. He emailed me the recipe, which I brought to my TCM doctor to look over and modify for my case.